Lightweight acoustic hyperbolic paraboloid diaphragms with graphene through self-assembly nanoarchitectonics

The paper presents a study on the fabrication of a lightweight acoustic hyperbolic paraboloid (HyPar) diaphragm using self-assembly nanoarchitectonics. The diaphragm is composed of a polyacrylonitrile (PAN) network combined with graphene oxide (GO) nanolayers. Spray coating is employed as a fabrication method, providing a simple and cost-effective approach to create large-scale curved diaphragms. The results demonstrate that the PAN/GO diaphragm exhibits acoustic performance comparable to a commercially available banana pulp diaphragm while significantly reducing weight and thickness. Notably, the graphene-based diaphragm is 15 times thinner and 8 times lighter than the commercial banana pulp diaphragm. This thinner and lighter nature of the graphene-based diaphragm offers advantages in applications where weight and size constraints are critical, such as in portable audio devices or acoustic sensors.